iRradiated 2
by Coldbloodonmysword
Summary: It's been forever, it seems, since Carly, Freddie, and Sam crossed a line that was erased in a disaster. Now, ten years later, things are looking up.
1. In Which We Are Introduced

Sam awoke in a cold sweat. Another nightmare. This one was worse. They had plagued her for a month now, almost nightly. She knew it had been 10 years since the nuke had hit the city and everything went to hell, yet she still couldn't believe anything like this ever happened. They had matured, fled the city, and she actually remembered a lot of the hell they went through after that. Shortly after they were rescued, she remembered waking up to Freddie's whispers.

* * *

"Sam! Sam! Wake up! Shh! Don't make a sound. This isn't a rescue copter, it's being piloted by a Vestigial.. What do we do?"

"Huh? Wha-? Wait, what? Shit, shit, shit! Alright Fredward, calm down. Don't wake Carly up, you know how she reacts to this type of situation. Uh... grab that fire extinguisher. Alright, slide that side door out, and watch out. Don't go falling to your death."

Freddie nodded, and tossed her the extinguisher. She slowly slid the door to the cockpit open, and when the pilot looked at her, she hit him in the face and knocked him out. She dragged him to Freddie, and the two dropped him in a lake that was below. Freddie commented that it was handy that a lake was below, and Sam shrugged. Then, Freddie pointed out that nobody knew how to pilot a helicopter, and they couldn't exactly fly forever. Just then, the helicopter lurched, and Sam thought fast, opening a nearby cabinet. Two parachutes. Sam fastened hers over her and Carly, still asleep. Freddie grabbed one too, and got ready. Sam signaled, and the three left. Carly woke up, and began screaming.

* * *

She laid back on her makeshift pillow, a sack full of crumpled paper, and tried to fall back asleep. Soon, the hellish sequences returned. Her fears decided to turn on her. She never let Carly know, but her biggest fear was the dark. Well, rather what lurked in it. All she could remember every time she woke up was being pounced by a massive black beast, the size of a bear, yet... different. That, and then the teeth. The teeth and the gnashing. Trying to ease herself, she reached next to her mattress, and pulled up her bottle of Wild Turkey. She took a swig of it, and put it back. 80 proof, she thought, was the only way to go. It was a very rough whiskey, but, then again, she liked it rough. She finally was lulled back into sleep, and a peaceful one, at that. She wished that every night could be like this, but she knew neither her or her liver would enjoy that. Carly already yelled at her enough over her boozing habits.

* * *

"Sam! Sam! Are you drunk? Look at me! Look. At. Me!" Carly shouted, across their room. Sam always smiled when she thought of the fact that they shared a room, and Freddie wasn't in that room. The two had their own beds, Carly's looking nice, and Sam's looking like... well, the bed one would expect from a 26-year old alcoholic woman.

Sam complied, and looked at Carly, and then fell down. Carly helped her up, and muttered something about hiding her whiskey soon. Sam flailed, and spilled a bit of her precious Jack Daniel's all over.

"Mneh! Let gooo.. ehhh.." Sam futilely nudged back, and fell asleep before Carly even got her onto her bed. She threw Sam's covers over her, and went back to her bed, and fell asleep. In the morning, she tossed every bottle she had outside at a wall, and went back inside. Sam was angry, but ended up scavenging more anyways. Carly knew unless she could get Sam to kick her habit, she shouldn't even try.

* * *

Sam awoke as Carly nudged her bed at the crack of dawn, and headed through the door into the hallway. Sam put her clothes on, and looked into the dirty, almost ruined, cracked mirror she salvaged. Admiring herself, she went into the hall. The three had stumbled upon an abandoned military outpost, and had lived there for almost 10 years, gathering supplies, taking out the occasional Vestigial mob, and recruiting other survivors. Sam herself taught combat training in the East wing for the last 7 years. She lead a small assault squad, nicknamed "The Children Of Sam" by a few of her soldiers. There may only be twenty of them, including her, but with the total population of the base being around 70 strong, she had a good amount of them. Besides, 40 battles and not a single "Child" lost. Sam loved what she did, and always looked forward to the end of the class, so she could go get something to eat. Vestigials commonly inhabited military structures, and they always took food and guns. Carly had learned how to make the food edible again, and Sam learned to keep the guns and conserve ammo using hand to hand and close quarters.

Carly toiled in the mess hall, and kept everyone fed. Sam always came in at 8:30 in the morning, and got her rations and left. Carly knew how to increase the maximum gain from the Rations, and added vitamins and the sort to the food. While she was at it, she made it taste like food, not cardboard. Later on, the two headed to the pump rooms and made sure the pumps worked, as they made the water drinkable. It was all a very tedious life, but they survived it. However, there always were the fun days. If only Sam knew what she was about to get herself into that day...

* * *

Author Note: Sorry it took so long guys! It's been busy as hell for me, returning to school, having a hectic summer before that, and having to actually sleep instead of 5:45 AM updates. The chapters might not be daily, but I WILL try to update WHENEVER POSSIBLE. PUT THIS ON YOUR ALERTS, PUT ME ON ALERTS, LEAVE A REVIEW, AND EVEN STORYMARK IT (Or whatever they call it).

* * *


	2. In Which We Meet Maya

iRradiated 2, Chapter 2

Had Sam known what type of shit was going to unfold within the next month, she would have never even bothered with her new recruit.

The recruits name was Maya. She got shuttled in on one of The Children's patrols, barely alive. What she was doing poking around a Vestigial camp was odd, but what was even odder is that the girl was so damn young. At least 14. No taller than 5'6", and had brown hair that went just below her shoulders. She still wore a sweatshirt, red, with some darker red spots, with the logo of a high school. Ironically, Sam recognized the high school as the rival school of the Bulldogs. Sure, it had been 10 years, but Sam could never forget the Millipedes. She always wondered how they came up with that name. The girls jeans had obviously been on her for a year or two, and Sam wondered how she lived so long in this hell hole. A shotgun blast had taken a nice chunk of her side out, but Sam knew from experience that she'd be fine. They laid her in the infirmary, and then one of the Children came running to Sam.

"Miss! Er.. Sgt. Sam?"

"Sam's good enough."

"Alright. Well you're needed in West Wing Barracks, now. It's Jenna."

Sam almost began running that second. She knew that anything regarding Jenna needing Sam wasn't good. You see, Jenna was a bit.. off. She accidentally ended up mistaking a survivor for a Vestigial and the whole innocent killing thing had shaken her up badly. Sure enough, when Sam opened room 235, it was too late. Jenna finally crumpled under the pressure, and had stolen some whiskey from Sam, acquired some sleeping tablets from the compound infirmary, and made herself a fatal cocktail. Sam wasn't taking that any better. The very first Child was dead outside of battle. Sam had always pounded the idea that death in battle was very glorious into the Children's heads. Nevertheless, she had to accept it. Sighing, she motioned for the informant to clean it up, and headed to the infirmary.

* * *

Maya's mind stirred as she was being wheeled into surgery. She gained control of her body again, and opened her eyes. She was restrained onto a metal desk with wheels. She tried to wiggle out of the ropes binding her, but couldn't. She looked to who was moving the desk.

"Wha-? Huh..? Oh god, Oh god, Oh god, where the hell am I...? Are you one of them?"

The man's voice was a gravely, deep reminder that showed that you don't always wake up next to a saint, no matter how many stories she read. "Nah, you're in good hands. Don't worry. No Vestigials in here. Just relax."

She could feel searing pain in her side. It flared and brought her to tears.

"You know, you look way too damn young to have to have a side of you fixed, Little Miss. You know that? It'll certainly hurt like a motherfucker, but it'll subside. Alright, we're in the operating theatre. Just try to relax, I'll knock you out. I'm sorry we don't have the fancy gas, but you know, when you're living after a nuke, you don't exactly have the fancy gas. This here is a tranq'. I hit you with this, and you should be just fine. If you do wake up during your surgery, please, don't flail. You may not have major injuries, compared to some of my cases, but a knife into your flesh isn't ever pleasurable. Unless you're one of those S&M guys. Oh, listen to me ramble. Here's the tranq'" She felt something like a needle enter her neck. "Alright, now you should be ju-" Maya went limp, and unconscious.

She faded back in around halfway through, but only for seconds. Once again, his voice filled her ears.

"Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer came down upon her head. Clang! Clang! Maxwell's silver hammer, Made sure that she was dead.."

She faded back out, and let the man finish his work.

"I think she's gonna be jus-"

"Sam, don't thin-"

"Look, she's getting up now!"

"Almost there, chin up Little Miss!"

Maya finally rejoined them, sitting in a wheelchair. Sam was the first one to speak.

"Max, don't you think it's a bit much for her to be in a wheelchair?"

"Sam, she's loaded up with painkillers and the like. If she walked, I'm sure she'd fall over."

Her vision, still blurred, could only make out a tall, slender blonde and a medium sized man with black hair siting on a chair, with the blonde standing next to her. The blonde walked up to Maya's chair, and began to wheel her out.

"Alright, thanks Max! See ya later. Alright, I don't know your name, and don't try to say it, cause you're so saturated with painkillers, even I'm impressed."

"Ma.. Ma.."

"No kiddo, I'm not your mother."

"No.. Name... Ma... Maya.."

"Alright then Maya, I'm Sam. I guess you can talk. Can you see anything?"

Maya looked up, and shook the hair from her eyes. Everything was a mass of shadows and lights.

"No.."

"Alright, well I'm taking you to West Wing, you'll be sleeping in 235, which just opened up. I run a small outfit here, you know, an army, of maybe 30, er, 29 people. The guy who runs the simulations and electronics kinda stuff, that's Fredward Benson, and the chick you'll probably see wandering around, the brunette? That's Carly Shay. That's mah girl. So don't you go messing with her. Hey, how old are you?"

"Fo.. Fourt.."

"Fourteen? Jesus christ kid! Alright, you're staying close to me for a while. Here's your room though. I'll help you into the bed, and I want you to just sleep and sleep and sleep, alright?"

"Sure...."

"Alright, cool. Good night, Maya."

"Night... uh.. Sam."

* * *

Author Note: So sorry this took forever! I had writers block, and school was kicking me in the mouth. I don't plan on having this big of a gap between the next chapter! Now, I need some sleep.


	3. In Which Maya Makes Friends

Maya slept, as Sam requested, and slept, and slept. She finally awoke. Immediately unaware of where she was and why her side was numb, she tried to place small thoughts together. Finally, she began remembering.

* * *

It was early, and Maya had just woken up. Her stomach angrily reminded her that food was the first thing on her agenda, and she looked eastward. A small fire dotted a camp, and Maya thought she could try to grab something there. After 15 minutes or so of walking, she reached the camp, and ducked behind a wooden crate near it. The scent of whatever was being roasted over the fire was driving her mad, and she used all of her effort to stay hidden. Two men were discussing over the flame, but Maya was too hungry to pay attention. Moments later, they finally went off, hearing a sound. Maya popped out, and tore a piece of the cooked meat off with her hands. Hurriedly, she ate it, and took more. Soon, she had finished half of it, and was getting ready to leave, when she heard the voices of the men again.  
"Hey! Where the fuck do you think you're going? You can't just walk in here and try to- Oh man, you ate our fucking food too?"  
Maya began to sprint, but felt a sharp pain tear into her left side, and she crumpled, her vision blurred by tears of pain. She looked to the left of her. Bits of flesh and skin painted the dead earth red. She glanced down at her own side, seeing a good side of it missing, as well as part of her shirt. Terrified, she saw something pinkish and coiled spilling into the ground. The man caught up, and aimed his shotgun at her face. The gun clicked, and he muttered, quickly trying to reload. His friend called out that someone was coming, and that they needed to get the hell out of there.  
"Man, just let me finish this kid off!"  
"No time man, go!"  
"Damnit!"  
He grabbed her cheeks with his right hand and pulled her face to his.  
"You ever try to take a vestigial's food, you end up dead. Shoulda thought before you took, you rat."  
His face was twisted and contorted through Maya's blurred view. He dropped her with a thud, and ran off. Maya remembered lying there for what seemed like ages, before someone saw her.  
"Hey! We got someone over here! Don't look vestigial, more like a scavenger. Side's blown off, I think she needs medical attention! Sgt. Sam, check her out!"  
Shortly after a woman stood over her and ordered someone to pick her up, she blacked out. Then... she thought, a man.. a knife.. silver hammers.. wheelchairs and sleep.

* * *

Realizing she was in a safer location, she tried to stand up. She could barely walk, and was lucky to find her wheelchair. She sat in it, and tried to figure out how to work it. Living in the Seattle wastes never helped her learn too much. Her old group referred to her as "Naive", a word she never got to figure out the meaning of. Finally, she found you had to work the wheels on the side to move it. After some time fumbling in the dark, she was competent with maneuvering her wheelchair. Wheeling around, she finally found the door, and when she reached out to turn the handle, the door slid to side into the wall and let in light. Bright, blinding light. Sound flooded her ears as well. Finally, one of the best scents she had ever smelled. Food. Once again, she was hungry. Turning to follow the smell, a voice called out to her.  
"Hey. You. Wheelchair chick."  
She looked around, and wheeled over to a corner. A man popped out of the shadow, and held out a small needle filled with a purple liquid.  
"Here. Take this. It's 'happy juice'. Just stick that needle into yourself, and push on that plunger. It'll make you feel awesome. It's free."  
Maya smiled, and took it, putting it in her lap.  
"Thanks. Never know when I might feel down. Wait, is this like bad for me or something?"  
"Oh no, I'd never sell you anything bad. It's just gonna make you happy for about an hour or so, and then you'll probably feel fine."  
"Alright. Thanks mister!"  
Maya wheeled back into her room, and put the needle in a drawer on a nightstand in the room. She then went to find that food that she was smelling. Finally, she got into the mess hall. Finding the food line, she wheeled herself behind everyone. Finally reaching the line, a brunette handed her an MRE, and spoke to her.  
"Hey, aren't you the one girl the Children found on their patrols? Maya?"  
"Yeah. Are you that brunette Sam spoke of? Carly?"  
"Actually, yeah, I am. Let me guess, she said to keep away from me, and that I'm "her girl", right?"  
"Yup. What is this stuff?" Maya asked, holding her MRE up.  
"That's an MRE, or Meal, Ready to Eat. No matter what anyone else says, that's what it means. That there is a Buffalo Wing and Cornbread meal, and theres a few other things in there. You'll probably need some water, so Sam is grabbing a canteen. If she's not already out there, she'll be near. Find her, and I'm sure she'll help you out. Normally, I kinda modify the meals, fortify them with vitamins and things, but the MREs seem to feed the folks here just fine. Alright, there's Sam. Over there, by the water dispenser, last table to the right. Go on, she's gonna have to show you around. I would come along, but I've gotta feed people."  
Maya smiled. Carly had a soft, warm, inviting voice. She said her goodbyes, and headed toward Sam. Sam spotted her, and waved her over.  
"Hey! Maya! How's ya feelin', kiddo? You got torn up bad, but I knew you'd be fine."  
She handed her a canteen, full with water.  
"Wish we had another set of wear, but Jenna's is still being de-authorized, and when it's done, the canteen you have will be useless, seeing as they have hydration bladders. Lemme see your MRE."  
Maya handed Sam her MRE. She looked it over, and gave it back.  
"Awesome. Wings, eh? My favorite. I got the same thing."  
She pulled a MRE identical to Maya's out of her pocket.  
"Lets go to the Children's table."  
"Children? I'm not a kid."  
"Woah there, got a big mouth huh? And I meant Children as in my little 'army' I mentioned earlier. or would you rather head back to your room, and eat there? I'm sure Carly could help you out."  
"I think I'll recover more before meeting your kids, Sam."  
"Kids, look at you, so young and precious. What I would give to be 14 again. And practically live this hellhole again. That whole 13th chapter would be different."  
"Chapter? Wha?"  
"Oh nothing. Sorry, guess hunger's getting to my head. Alright, I'll see you later then Maya, In fact, I'll swing by and take you on a tour later. No go, get eating!"  
Maya nodded, and wheeled back towards the kitchen. The last person passed through, and Carly began to close up. She noticed Maya going back to her room, and followed her.  
"Eating in your room? What for?"  
"I'm gonna heal up before meeting Sam's kids."  
Carly laughed. "They're not actually her kids.."  
"She acts like they are."  
"Well, they will as well."  
"What do you mean?"  
"Nothing, here's your room. I'll help you prepare that meal, and then I'll see if you need anything else, ok?"  
"Alright."  
From there on out, Maya felt that the Compound wouldn't be such a bad place after all.

* * *

D'AWWW Happy ending. Once again, late update. School again is to blame. DAMN YOU SCIENCE AND YOUR NEVER GIVING US EXACT DUE DATES SO WE NEVER TURN ANYTHING IN AND FAIL! DAAAAMNNN YOUUUU!


	4. In Which Sam and Carly Share A Moment

iRradiated 2, Chapter 4 -  
The rest of the day went by quick, and Sam was happy to finally see the compound winding down in the later hours. She knew the sunset would be arriving soon, so she snuck up on Carly, and grabbed her hand.  
"Carly, c'mon."  
"What for, Sam?" Her voice was still happy, nonchalant.  
"You'll see. Now, come on, or we'll miss it!"  
She basically had to drag her through the compound, and then out of it, before going around the left side.  
"C'mon Sam, what?"  
"Shh."  
She took her across a series of step-like-rocks, and arrived on the compound roof. They sat at the edge over the door, and Sam motioned to the sunset.  
"Whaddya think?"  
"Well, it's beautiful, of course."  
Sam smiled. Sure, the Vestigial Tail, a looming metallic structure that seemed to tear the sky and clouds into a circle around it, was still showing, but it was a beautiful sight. There was a light breeze, and Carly was smiling off into the distance. Sam turned to Carly.  
"To me, the sun just kinda feels like a friend... I mean, that's the only thing that was ever sure. But now.... I dunno. Do you think we'll ever find a real reason to live?"  
"Sam, the truth is, the world is as you see it. See, if you see the world as the hell it is, it will be this hell. I see it as a chance. A gift to humanity. A chance to restart."  
Sam smiled, and looked back at the sunset.  
"Yeah, I guess.... I mean, if we lived, we must have been meant to save the world or something."  
"Sam. We're survivors, not Superheroes."  
Sam laughed, and turned to Carly, wiping the ash from her hair. Sam knew she had done something right when Carly laced her fingers with Sams, and scooted closer, before finally leaning in, meeting Sams lips. Anyone who had lived in the compound would not have been surprised were they to walk out and look up. Carly and Sam were quite public, and nobody spoke ill of them. Everyone noted what a pair they were, and the last person to have spoken ill of the two, calling Sam a "Faggot", was met with harsh retaliation. Using the electric mixer in the kitchen, Sam made sure he was no longer a man. Drawing back, Sam smiled, and went back in. A few minutes later, Carly drew away, and remarked back to Sam.  
"You know Sam, I really think that we, you and I, might actually find a better place."  
"You mean after death?"  
"No, I mean like now. In this twilight of humanity."  
"Maybe, Kiddo, Maybe. Hey, did you ever find out what happened to Spencer?"  
"I don't know, he was around Minnesota by the time we were nuked, and he could be anywhere."  
Just then, the informant ran out, and looked around, before finding Sam. "Sam! Sam! Freddie needs you, he said he's found something, and told me to get you!"  
Sam looked at Carly. She nodded, and smiled, telling Sam it was fine to go. She hoped down, and hurried to Freddie.  
"Alright monkey-boy, what is it?"  
"First of all Sam, I'm not a boy. I'm a ma-"  
"So you are a girl then!"  
"Damnit Sam... Listen, I just picked up a broadcast for help from Alaska. Old mining facility, and thought you might be interested."  
"I am. Call for Split to fire up the chopper. I'll get my gear."  
"Why don't you take Maya with you? Get her some field time?"  
"How about you go choke on a railroad spike?"

And with that, Sam was off to the hangar, grabbing some Children along the way. She arrived at the hangar cocking a shotgun, and leading nine Children. Sam met Freddie near the chopper, got the coordinates, and got everyone in the back, before getting into the cockpit. With the cabin door open, Carly ran up to her.  
"Sam, I know you can handle yourself, but... just for me, take this." She handed Sam a black case.  
"Alright, Love you, Carls."  
"I love you too, Sam. Good luck, and stay safe."  
"You act like something will go wrong. It's just recon."  
"Whatever it is, just be careful."  
"Alright. See ya."  
"Bye."  
And with that, Sam closed the cabin door, and took off, with Carly waving, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. Freddie came up, and put a hand on her back.  
"Carly, she'll be just fine. Don't worry."  
"I hope, Freddie. I hope."

---------------------------------------

AUTHOR NOTE: Why'd this take so long to write? I re-wrote it about 5 times. Sorry it took effin' forever, and I hope it was better than I expected. 


	5. In Which Freddie Makes A Discovery

Freddie twiddled the knobs on one of the shortwave radios, looking for any nearby signals that were still being broadcast. For hours he had done this, just passing time until his services were needed. As the little indicator swept across the display, he caught a small sound, a little noise, enough to get his attention. He moved it back towards the signal, and slowly made fine adjustments until the reception was as clear as he could get it.

Through minimal static, Freddie listened carefully. It was a voice, a deep, gruff voice, obviously a man. Possibly German, he thought. He grabbed a pen and started writing down what it was saying. It was a string of numbers, "Four-Seven-One-Nine-Four". The voice then paused, and repeated. Freddie noticed that it was a synthesized voice, obviously recorded long ago and still repeating. After looping five or six times, the signal went blank for a second, and then a monotonous tapping played.

It was too constant to be morse, he thought, so it's obviously a sort of filler. Still, he had no clue what the numbers were for. He had remembered reading about these "Number Stations" heard over shortwave radios, especially UVB-76, a station in Russia that had a pattern that was somewhat similar. If the station he found was anything like those stations, he wouldn't ever get an answer to what the numbers meant.

One thing bugged him, however. Whatever location it was broadcasting from was still standing. It had to be, he muttered to himself. It had to be, else there'd be no signal. He turned to the locational computer, a rig he had fixed in the base when they first moved in so many years ago. He looked back at the shortwave radio, noting the frequency. He input the frequency and waited. And waited.

Finally, twenty minutes later, the computer beeped. It had found a couple of possible locations, with many of them being in Alaska. He looked at the main radio set up, and checked its frequency, the one that they got the Alaskan transmission from, and the number stations frequency. Sure enough, they matched up. He grabbed the headset from the desk and connected to Sam.

Sam pressed the button on her headset after noticing it had lit up. A voice cracked in from the other side. It was the dingus, and he sounded out of breath. He told her that he had found some signal on the radio, and it was broadcasting out of the facility she was in. He seemed excited, as if he had made some discovery that would save the world, or something.

"But get this, Sam." He laughed. "That's the second signal coming out, and it's giving this message of 'Four-Seven-One-Nine-Four'."

"So what?" She asked, slightly annoyed. Her and the children were in the middle of something, and not exactly up for conversation. If he kept it up, she would hang up, and let him sort his own shit out.

Just then, something moved. She saw it out of the corner of her eye, but it took her no time to move her hand from the earpiece to the grip of the shotgun, and to aim at whatever was moving. Whatever was there, it was gone now. She brought her hand back to the earpiece, and wasn't surprised that Freddie was still rambling on.

"Look, Fred-aroo, I'd love to keep flirting about your tech shit, but I'm in the middle of something. We can discuss your radio fun later." And without waiting for his response, she disconnected, and motioned for the rest of the children to follow.

For a mining facility, the main building was small. She had reached the back with the team within a couple of minutes, much less than combing the rest of the area had taken. The search in the quarters turned up nothing but a bloodbath, with corpses everywhere and blood coating the rooms. Fresh blood. She was normally a lone woman, but the sight of that had made her happy that she had a squadron with her. At the end of the last hall in the main building was a locked door. It had a keypad, and it looked broken. She pounded on it, but it did nothing. However, a voice came from the other side of the door.

"H-Hello? Who's out there? If you're back to try to get me, it won't work! I've got a gun, and I think I can use it. I haven't lost too much blood yet!"

The voice was somewhat familiar to Sam, and she thought, trying to pin the voice to a face. Finally, she exhausted her mind, and spoke up.

"I don't know who you think we are, but we're friendly. I don't know what happened here, but we picked up your distress signal. Please, open the door. You said something about an injury, and loss of blood. Do you need medical attention?"

There was a rustling inside, like someone jumping up from a pile of papers, and then running footsteps to the door, and then a few buttons beeping. The door slid open, and Sam immediately recognized who had been on the other side of the door.

It was Spencer.

* * *

Author Note: Well, this is it. I'm finally gonna finish this story, even though I know that the three readers it has are probably off doing other shit. If so, I'm really just gonna finish it for myself, so it stops eating away at my mind like it has for the last few months or so. If you are one of my three original readers, thank you so much for coming back after learning about the new chapter.  
If you're a new reader, please stay with me as I get this story written.

I also hope to get back to my regular update schedule now.

Oh, and this was originally formatted correctly, indentations and such, but FF decided that it didn't like that, soooo...


	6. In Which There Is A Nightmare

Meanwhile, back in the base, Splits sister, Trip, was about to take her afternoon nap. Split and Trip had shown up around the base a year after Carly, Freddie and Sam had cleared it out. Carly had hoped that they would be more feminine than Sam, mainly because she had no other person like that to associate with. The two, however, seemed more interested in machinery. They told the three that they had helped their father in his auto repair shop before the bomb fell. Their real names were known only to them, with them adopting the names Split and Trip when they joined the base. They had taken the name from the base registry. Split and Trip had been the nicknames of the two previous mechanics, so they just took the names and used them ever since.

However, today seemed off to Trip. It felt like something was always watching her, waiting. When she had laid down and closed her eyes, she thought she heard something in the dark with her. It was an odd sound, almost like a large, flat object being pressed to the ground. The light was on the other side of the room, and Trip knew that if anything was out there, it could get her before she made it to the other side. But she wasn't stupid enough to try that, even if it was likely just her mind playing a trick on her. Finally, she tried to close her eyes again, and heard another sound. An animal-like sigh. Then, she remembered the small, LED flashlight she kept in her pocket at all times.

Lucky for her, she slept fully clothed, and she quickly pulled it out, fumbling for the button. When it lit up, it only revealed a small area of light, no bigger than the size of a CD. Regardless, she had to make sure that she was alone. She twisted and turned, looking around from her bed, hoping not to see something. She sighed in relief when it revealed nothing in the room with her. Bringing the light back to her chest, she noticed a small gleam out of the corner of her eye. She adjusted the light on it, and her heart jumped. A large beast, the size of a bear, was clinging to the ceiling. It seemed to have no skin or fur of any sort, almost as if it were a three dimensional shadow. Even worse, the thing looked back at her. It had pure white eyes, with no sort of pupil at all. An odd, dual circle and arrow tattoo showed up on its forehead when it was illuminated by the flashlight. The beast was clinging to the ceiling by a few tendril like protrusions from its back. Suddenly and without warning, it dropped down, and crouched, ready to pounce. Trip reached for her revolver, but wasn't fast enough, as it leapt at her, maw agape.

At that very second, Split sensed something very, very wrong. She turned, and knew that Trip was in trouble. She could feel it. She started to run from the garage, at one end of the base, to their room, at the other side. The entire run she cursed herself for convincing Trip that they didn't need the room adjacent to the garage.

Trip was on the floor, eyes staring blankly upwards. Her breathing pattern was ragged, and her mind in a strange grip. In her head, she was back in her fathers garage, working on the carburetor of the family car. Wiping grease on her pants, she turned around and came face to face with a strange thing. Its skin seemed to shift, and it looked oddly... fake. She couldn't explain it, but it just didn't look right. The being lifted her off the ground and threw her into the standing tool chest. It rattled, and drawers flew open, spilling screws and wrenches of various sizes and shapes everywhere when it tilted over and crashed into the ground. Trip began crawling away, head hurting and bleeding from a gash on the upper left of her forehead.

The blood flowed into her open eye, temporary blinding her and causing her to cry out in pain. The being moved towards her, and again lifted her up, tossing her into the driveway. The driveway's slope was much steeper than she had last remembered, and she started rolling down and into the street. Confused and stunned, she tried to catch her breath, dizzy from the last minute or so of action. She looked to the right as she heard a car's horn honk, and saw the tire catch her face at lethal, bone-splattering speeds.

Split opened the doors to their room, and saw Trip lying on the floor. She screamed for help into the hallway, and went inside. Trip still had a pulse, but was unresponsive to all other types of contact for a moment, before she sat up and screeched louder than she ever had before. Split comforted her, and Trip broke into tears, telling her of the encounter with the beast and her following nightmare. It was a nightmare she had once earlier, around a month before the nuclear end came upon the earth. However, it seemed more detailed and vivid, and Trip was very obviously distressed by it. Split helped her to her feet and out the door to Maxwell.

The Children's helicopter was returning from Alaska, with Spencer now in tow. Sam had felt that the mission was somewhat successful, but was worried how to explain to Spencer that his younger sister was in a relationship with her best friend. She figured she'd explain later, and asked Spencer what had happened to the mining colony.

* * *

Authors Note: Well, that was a lot longer than I had expected to write. Trips nightmare was pretty interesting to write, and even more so to edit and really read it. Next, you guys will get to learn what went down, and what Spencer was up to. Until next time, take it easy!


End file.
